Apparatus for applying corrections in the laying of artillery pieces from a. distance



may 6 g E. SCHNEIDER APPARATUS FOR APPLYING CORRECTIONS IN THE LAYING OF ARTILLERY PIECES FROM A DISTANCE Filed June 50. 1923 v 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 E. SCHNEIDER APPARATUS FOR APPLYING CORRECTIONS m THELAYING OF ARTILLERY May 6 PIECES FROM A DISTANCE Filed June 30, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 6, 1924 3,492,899 E. SCHNElDER APPARATUS FOR APPLYING CORRECTIONS IN THE LAYING 0F ARTILLERY PIECES FROM A DISTANCE Filed June 30, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 .20 through .the medium PatentedMay 6.,

UNIQTED roan, or rams, runner, scanners, a rmrnn connmane; roe errnYina .jrnona the object to permit a'single guncxlayer v to control a group of pieces; r This gun layer'generally uses a' special telescopemounted on a dummy gun called a,d1stant controller, but alternativel he may-use a sighting apparatus of one. 'o the pieces of the oup.

The pieces re oriented by receive" om the distant controller station,

of suitable transmis- The .fir of these pieces -ieeted by the closing-of an e trol st-ation 'and' is operated at'the moment when-the image of the target passes on to the hair line of the elevating telescopeiinstalled at that station.

3D theoretical case where all the 'piecesare l identical among themselves, and where all the platforms are situated inthe ,same hori- Qzontal plane, the points of ,fall of the pro-. arallel among.

" jectile,-if the zpleces were themselves, would still be di erentand their distribution in plan would'theoretically be a a reproduction of that' of the pieces. In order to cause these points of fall to com 'der to'take account of parallax."

" be at the same, altitude the'y' will not be at the same distance from the'target,they will not be' exactl and they A the-' 'eame initial speed, and-:finally' their g) piatfoifims willnot be parallel. It will tlfen correct the elevation of the ie ces and to *a' thereto the following 'C H rallaa: in order to take account th (11 comcrrons nt rm: Lame or p servers to corr'ewnd with the indications that they g enerally cf; I ectrlc inter-= y rupter which ,isplaced at the distant con- 7 'It is -.clearly evident that *evnin the verge onto'the target, it -is'there;Eore necessary to. of all correct the trainingof the pieces by introducing acorrection in oridentical among themselves, notimpart to the projectile qf altitude; corass'ienonmo scrmnrimn a 0111,01 nears,

srocx comm \or FRANCE.

nrs'rencn.

Application mam-e so, 1923. Serial so, e4s,ss2.

"rection for difference of distance fromft'he target correct-ion for the. initial speed of the projectileyan'd correction for the inclination of the latform.. H i In the case 0 firing on board warships, in order that the gun laying'may be correot,'it is further necessary to take account of the inclination of the deck with referenceto the plane of fire, andthe speed 4 with whichthe piece is displaced vertically by the movementsfof the ship. .Apparatus for efiecting these two latter corrections are described in the French patents oith'e 12th March 1921 and of-the 15th June 1921 and .will not be referred to in the following descrifition. Q v

' The invention consists in an installation for mechanically solving the formulee'Twhich give thee-corrections hereabove set forth, 'and'ior correcting-the laying of the artillery by theintroduction of the said corrections.

Byiwvay of example there will hereinafter be described how the invention may be applied to the-artillery of a warship. Correction -for perallaw' azimuths-According to the invention,' all the pieces of the same calibre belonging to the same broadside, and whose distance apart countedalong the direction of the axisof the ship .is less than av given-limit,.will be grouped' in such a way as to constitute a certain numberof sections and the corrections for parallax will'be determined at the distant controller for imaginary pieces, Whichare assumed to-besituatedas near as possible to the centre of each section and to beplaced on a straight line which passes through the horizontal promotion of the distant controller. This solution evidently allows small errors in azimuthto remain uncorrected. (these small errors may always be made less than a predetermined limiting value), but it has on the contrary the very great advantage of allowing the determination of thecorrection at the distantcontrpller itself, and in remarkably-simple conditions) 15f,- infact the target is. dicated by' B ."(seethe diagram of Fig. 1), the distant' controller-by T, the pieces of the same' broadside assumed to be'grouped in three fi n b H GmQ s 'Cn' a, a 0'1 s! and the 1: rec ry pieces for. which the par a l x at 'T isf to be determined by Antennae; rmcns S S S then the "corrections for parallax p p 12 to be applied to the pieces of each of the three sections are formulae1- sin p,=% sin al sin p,= f sin a in which D 1),, 13 respectively indicate 1 nary. pieces S S5,- S an the distances. from the tar et of the imagia indicates the angle which the line of sight TB mak with the straight line S S TS As the distances D D D are always'in practice sufiiciently close to the distance Dv of the distant controller T from the target, and as also the angles of parallax are always so small that they maybe substituted for their sines, therefore the above-formulae maybe replaced by the 'followin'gz sinaf 1).

and in' this form they are adapted to be solved by the use of the ap%ar tus repre sented diagrammatically by igure 2. In this figures-1 in icates a cylindrical drum which turns as a function of a around its axis 2 and carries a graph constituted by a series of sinusoidal curves. vThese sinusoidal curves are graduated to corre-.

spend with the'difierent values of B and are obtained 1) taking a as abscissae and forbrdinatest e values of the function sin a 3 is ahaiidle' for turning thev screw 4;-

while 5 is a nut which'is mounted. on 4 and carries a forlr'6 -.in which isengaged, the

fixed rod 7, so that when 3 is caused to turn, the nut 5 is displaced along 4; An index i 8 is fixed to 5 and this index is displaced to correspondwith one of the"generatrices of 1; 9-710,"1213, 15-16 are three series of pairs of bevel .wheels which when the screw 4 makes one turn respectively im-i part TS turns to'thecshaft 11, TS turns to the shaft 14:, and .TS turns to thes shaftlk .It is clear that order to bring the index 8 from .the righthand extremity of the Cy]: inder up to. the curve corresponding to the distanceD, -it;' will be necessaryto the given by' the screw 4through a number of turns proportionalto M siii a i D Iv made-by the shafts 11, .14, and .17 willbe reslpfictively proportional to 79 ,1), andv e corrections thus determinedwill, be

introduced into the transmission of the difierentlals suc as al d d interposed between thls shaft and the transmitters t 2, s- I i In Figure 2 it shouldbe home that there at 19 to a steel band 20. One of -theex-' tremitis of thissteel band '20 is constantly sub ected to a 1111 from a barrel "21, (in

,the direction in ic'ated by the arrow), while and that accordingly the number pf turns bearing given b the shaft g',by means of 280 is also ausecond index 18,' which is fixed? the other extremity is wound on 'a-pulle'g 22 ich rigidly connected to the inion 231w gears with the rack 24.

23; Thus when the index 8 approaches the left of the drum,.in which neighbourhood thetraces. of the first sin idal curves are more or less closed up towa ds one another,

then instead of and in lace of .8, therem'ay be used the second in ex 18,'on condition that the readingsare made on a second graph set up by adopting for qrdlnates; a

great as the scale T scale which is 1' times as p for the first aph and'this device will con siderably fac litate the readings; -'In order to make the outlines-of the graphs more convenient, the stops 25 and 26 will be set in: such a way'as'to permit the: use of the 7 same. curves for both graphs. These curves 7 will then carry, two graduations,i"an'd' in' order to avoidany confusion, these. gradu be distinguished by" ifl'erentcolours.

Correction for parallax in altitudefie-In the same way as for the parallax'iniazlmuth;

at the same level will be'grou ed"tog'ether.r If H denotesfthe difierence of evel-between it all the pieces of the same calibre which are 1-15 atiolis (and thecorres ending indexes)-will' f the distant controller and the horizontal plane which co'rrespondstto the mean altiapply to the elevation of the-pieces of tude of a section, ,then the cor'rection'i to the said section is given by the iormufla e ti:

halal-eleg :been stated, the distant controller comprises a sighting apparatus which is identical with thoseusually found on guns. If this sighting apparatuscem' prises alcam, to allow of suitably orienting the telescopewithreference to .the axis of the piece-in function of the distance D, then ,the contour fthis cam may be corrected 1n sucha way as to take account of the correction .i; the elevating of the telesco e.

In the most general case where the. sig t-.

' ing apparatus will not comprise'any cam 'for thelelevation of'the telescope,-then a cam will be introduced into the mechanism for theactuation of the telescope, said cam being' driven as a-function of the distance D and being specially adapted to take-account of the correction i obmea'm fo'r tlle'z'nclinatz'on of the platform-It? will be of interest to measure the .inclination' b of. the platform of each piece;

. will thus be necessa 't'ant controller itsel .a'. correction for'the jnot'directly with reference to the platform of the. distant oontroller,.but withrefer ence'to an intermediate plane com 'rised between thetwo most inclined -plat or'ms. It to apply to the. dis

inclinationpfits platform, but thereby' the importance of the individual corrections will be considerably' reducedy'which will simplify the construction of'the apparatus. If g denotesthe bearing of the line of greatest slope and b the inclination of the platform of'one of the pieces,'then the cor- 35' piece will be rection 2 to apply to the elevation of thi givenby the formula a= 9 19-90)- p 'Figure 3 diagrammatically. represents an a paratus :Eor the mechanical determina-- tion of this correction and for its introduction in the transmission of the elevation,

In this figure, '101-102 is a-shaft which turns proportionally. to the hearingv g; 103-104. is .a plate keyed on 1011-102 105-106 is a plate which can be made rigid I with"'103-10 4 by clamping the screw 107 on.103104; 108 -109 is aplate which be turned round the axles 110.in thebearwhen brought intoa position such that the.

:section' bythe plane of the paper in Figure 3 corre'sponds to the graduation g read ings 111'. carried by 105- 106. By acting on. the screw 112 which gears with the toothed are 5113 the plate 108-109"can beinclined, T with reference to the shaft 7 .101-102; through an angle pro ortional to 6+9Qf; 114 is a roller mounts at the'ex- 'tI'EmItV of the screw 115.

pinion 46, which through 47 and 4.8 drives 'one of thejpinionsil of a difierential in which the" second pinion 50, is driven. proportionally tolthe euglel'of inclination 1' of may u D This screw 115" s thereby displaced proportionally, to and is used as a, rack in order to turn ,a

the piece. It therefore follows thatthe index .52 driven by the planet wheels of the differential will be displaced proportionally to e l-2' The index 52 is assumed to be mounted oohcentrically .troller, and it will be seen that when this index 52 has been brought intoagreement with the latter index'at the rece1ver,'the artillery piece will in'-fact have been d s.- placed through the angle z'z' to the index ofthe receiver actuated throu h the distant con- 'C'm'rection for the difereme distance i of the pieces from the target-If g denotes thebearing pf a piece with reference tofthe 'distant controller, and Z the distance be: tween the projection of th1s piece, and that of the distant controller, .the n the d1fier-.

'e'nce (1 in the distance from the target for which this" correction should be calculated equal to 1 cos (g g The correspond- "mg correction i isja function ofd and of D, and this functioncan be determined exactly and introduced automatically b :utilizing for example a camoid. 53, whic' turns in function of g and. is. displaced .alon its axis in function-of D The whole of t e lates.103- 1 O4, 105-406, 108 -109 53 through are ma e'to'rest' on this camoid the medium of a pivot 54.

Correction for speed.The correc tion corresponding to a variation of the ini tial speed V 'of, the

projectile is the function on the one han of this variation of speed, and on the other hand of the distance D. The initial speed V of the pro-."

jectile may be affected by difl'erent causes and specially by the power of the powder used and by the state of-wear of each piece.

The first of these causes produces its efingly the corresponding correction may be The second'caiise produces an error which it is necessary to correct on each piece. This correction 6 may be efiected automatlcally by utilizinggfor example a camoid 55 which turns in function of D and is adapted ti) be displaced alongits. shaft in fuectiqn of the variation of V due togwi'aa'r. Thls camoid is used in orderto turn the screw against 55' by the spring- 57 andt rough the piniqns 58, 59-,and 60. The screw will then be mounted between a rotaryi con-.

nection 61 which will transmit all the displacements'of the roller'114, and a long'i-' tudinallvfslidingconnection 62 which will transmitthe. rotations caused :by the By of th; arrangement 115 through the rack 56, (which is ressed in Fig. 3 it is: proposed 'to-e'fiect the whole of the corrections z +z',+i,-j-i, in an entire.

iy automatic manner. As an alternative, ig. 4 indicates a semi-automatic arrangement .which can be utilized in the case where the automatically determined corrections are introduced into the transmissions through the intervention of. a gun server; In this figure, 63, 64' denotes a shaft turninig function or the bearing g and driving a graph-carrying drum 65; 66 denotes a bandle for turning the screw 67; 68 is a nutwhich is mountedon 67 and carriesfaiork 69 ,inwhich e ages. a fixed-rod 70, so that when 66 is ca sed to turn, the nut 68 is displaced alon 67:an index 71 is fixed to 68 and isdispaced in front of one of the generatrices of 65. The graph should be trace'd for determined values of the three parameters 9,, Z, and V and accor gly lt-ShOllld be re laced in thecas'e wh the initial speed 1 is modified by the wear ofthe plece. In these conditions, the four corrections i i i '11,, being functions only and of the distance, it wilt of the bearin fthata'graphmay be traced be understoo constituted-by a series oi-curves which aregraduated in D and are obtained-by taking .as 'abscissee g and as ordinates the values of the entire correction 5 +11 -l-,z',+z' It will be seenthat when t e? guii 'serverhas om the middle of the drum up to the curve corresphnding to the distance D, then' the shaft 67 rotate through a number of turns proportional to the entire cor-, rection that it is. necessaryto introduce in the transmission. This introduction can moreover be made just as has been previousdifferential 4950 in ly explained (see Fig. 3) by utilizinga order to actuate the index 52.

Having now particularly :described and Q I ascertained the nature of-my said invention and in what manner the same is to be perf formed, I declare that what I claim is .ixitroducing corrections into the ang s of 'L-In an apparatus fordetermimng' and.

trainzand elevation transmitted to a 'plu-f rality of guns to be controlled in-order -to.

insure 'conver ence .of fire the combination with a plurallty of guns arranged in a plu- .r'ality of cups, of -a distantcontrol, and mechanica means for determining the 6o r re'ctions to be introduced for parallax mazimuth" and altitude, for inclination of the platform and control mechanism plat d r in,--=.for diflerence'in distance ,of the 'guns the com plurality of guns arranged in a plurality of roupaor mechanical mean sffordeterm-in laced the index 71- in' order to bring and control mechanism from the target, and for dilferences of muzzle velocities. I 2. In an ap aratus for insuring converge ence'ao f fire o apluralityof bination with a control mec anism and a.-

ing the corrections to be introduced into the I angles oftraim and elevation of said control mechanism and guns for parallax in azimuth and altitude, for inclination of the inlplat if v r 10 I form and control mechanism plat orm, for differences in distance of the guns-and control mechanism fronr'a target, andif or'dif-v ferences of muzzle velocities of said: guns.

3. An apparatus for insuring convergence of the fire of a plurality 'of guns comprising, "in combination with a distant control, a plurality of guns, and transmittinginech in. V

anism inter osed between said gun and con-' trol, means or mechanicallydetermmmg and introducing into the range and ,traming in azimuth-andaltitude, differences in the in- ;qd angles transmitted corrections for-parallax clinations .of the platforms, difie'rences in distances of said guns 4. An apparatus for msurmg convergence of the fire of aplurality-of guns comprising" in combination with a distant control, a,

a 9,0, laying angles inguns and control,

pluralit of anism. or in icatm terposed betf een means for determining and introducing" into the transmitted angles of elevation and train corrections that are functions. of the bear and distance of a target fromsaid guns air id s, :and transmitting mech- "control, said means includin agraph-ca,

drum, a pointer assoc1atedwith" said s and control relative to a target, and or. difi'erenoes of muzzle 'veloclties of said 1 drum,'an indeir, and a diiferential fortrans; I

mitting movements of said pointer, to saidv index-i 5.An apparatus of the j 7 comprising, in combination"w1th' a plu'ral ity of-guns an mechanically determinin and introducing d a distantcontrol, means for i I 10. into the gun laying. ang es transmitted by said control corrections for .paraJl ax- 1n 7 azimuth of said guns and control,"ineans .for introducing; corrections for parallax in altitude, means for determinin and'i'ntroducing'corrections for the vine inatio'nsoi the platforms or i said guns. and control, means for introducing corrections forgthe difierences in distance of the guns from a firing objective, and means .for introducing corrections for diiferences inmuzzle velocities of said guns.

6. An'apparatus of the ty described comprising, 1n combination wit a pluralit of groups of guns and. a distantt contro,

means for mechanically introducing into the.

glm laying angles transmitted by said. con! trol corrections for-paraHaxin azimuthand v corrections for parallax in' altitude, -said located substantiallyat the center-or e 1' corrections'beingdetermined relative to said control and a plurality of-imaginary group of s 7. An spparatus o'fftheitype described comprising, inco nbination, a plurality .of

7 means in azimuth and altitude, inclinations of nesassa guns arranged in a plurality of groups, a distant control, means for transmitting gun laying angles from said control to said guns, and means for introducing into the transmitted angles. corrections for parallax in azimuth and altitude.

8. An apparatus of the type described comprising, in co. abination, a plurality of guns arranged in a plurality of groups, a distant control, means for transmitting gun laying angles from said control to said and means for mechanically introducmg into the transmitted angles corrections for parallax in azimuth and altitude.

-9. An apparatus of the type described comprising, in combination, a plurality of guns arranged in a plurality of groups, a distant control, means for transmitting gun laying angles from said control to said guns, and means for mechanically introducing into the transmitted angles corrections for parallax in azimuth and altitude said corrections being determined with reference to said control and imaginary gunsdocated at substantially the center of each of said groups of guns. V V

10. Fire control apparatus for insuring convergence of fire comprising, in combina-V tion, a plurality of guns, a distant'control, means for transmitting gun laying angles from said control to said guns, and means for mechanically introducing into said transmitted angles corrections for parallax, said first named means including a gra hcarrying drum, a movable pointer, move le means for maintaining said pointer in indicating relation with said drum, a difierential actuated by said movable means, and indicating means operatively connected to said difierenfial. 11. Fire control apparatus for insuring convergence of fire comp in combination, a plurality of guns, a distant control,

or (gun I from said control to and means for mechanically introducing into said transmitted angles corrections for parallax,

and control platforms, diiferences in tance of said and control from a obiective, an 'difierences in muzzle veloci= ties of said said last named means including, a rotatable drum, a graph mounted thereon, a movable inter associated with said graph, a rotate 1ev shaftfor' actuating laying angesa cam for introducing corrections for parallax in altitude, a movable plate for introducing corrections for inclinations of the gun and control platforms, a camoid for introducing diflerences in distance of said guns and control from a firing objective,

and a camoid for introducing corrections for differences in muzzle velocities of said guns.

- 13. Ordnance apparatus comprising, in combination, a plurality of laterally displaced guns, a control therefor, means for transmitting gun laying angles from said control to said guns, means for mechanically introducing corrections into said angles for insuring convergence of fire of said guns on a target including a graph-carrying drum, a movable pointer, threaded means for moving said pointer along said drum, indicating mechanism, and a differential interposed between said mechanism and said threaded means.

14. Ordnance a paratus comprising, in

combination, a p urality of laterally displaced guns, a control therefor, means for ice from said transmitting gun laying ang control to said guns, means for mechanipally introducing corrections into said angles for conver me of fire of said guns on a target inclu a plate screw means for tilting said plate through angle proportional to the angle of inclination of tihe platform of onia1a of said guns plus ninety egrees a screw ving engagement wi said plhte, a differential actuated by said screw, and indicating means actuated by said difi'erential.

thine In testimony whereofI have signed specificatiom' EUGENE SCHNEIDER.

Witnesses: 7 Axons: Mos-menu,

Louis Gamma 

